The US Vice Presidential candidate has been accused of lifting the Nirvana man's baby anecdote

PA

Mitt Romney‘s running partner in the US election, Paul Ryan, has been accused of stealing an anecdote from the late Nirvana frontman, Kurt Cobain.

In last night’s Vice Presidential debate (October 11), Republican congressman Ryan told a story about how his daughter Liza got the nickname Bean, when answering a question about abortion.

Gawker reports that it was quickly pointed out by Twitter users that Ryan’s story was similar to Cobain’s, who said he gave his daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, her unique middle name because she looked like a kidney bean on his wife Courtney Love’s ultrasound scan. Ryan has stated that he is a big fan of Nirvana, as well as Rage Against The Machine.

In the debate, Ryan said: “You know, I think about ten and a half years ago, my wife Janna and I went to Mercy hospital in Janesville where I was born for our seven week ultrasound for our first born child. And we saw that heartbeat. Our little baby was in the shape of a bean, and to this day we have nicknamed our first born, Liza, ‘Bean’.”

When it was revealed that Ryan was a fan of Rage Against The Machine, Tom Morello of the band wrote in Rolling Stone that Ryan was “the embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades.”

He continued: “Ryan claims that he likes Rage’s sound, but not the lyrics. Well, I don’t care for Paul Ryan’s sound or his lyrics. He can like whatever bands he wants, but his guiding vision of shifting revenue more radically to the one percent is antithetical to the message of Rage.”